An off beat look at Indonesian and South East Asian football from the terraces or the pub

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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Hey MB, Spare Me a Sen

Taken from The StarMonday July 21, 2008Perak in dire straitsBy RONNIE OHGEORGE TOWN: Perak are in deep financial crisis and they may not be able to fulfil their commitment to play against Lebanon's SAFA FC in the away match of the AFC Cup quarter-final tie in September.Perak, whose players have gone without salaries for nearly four months now, have made appeals for funds to the state and the FA of Malaysia (FAM) but they have not received replies.Coach Steve Darby yesterday said that withdrawing from the competition would earn the wrath of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in a fine and suspension.“It would cost us about US$26,000 to bring 18 players and six officials to Lebanon. We have sliced the budget by about US$6,000 by trimming the squad to a minimum of 15 players and four officials. But there is still no way out,” said the Englishman.“We do not have funds to purchase air tickets. We wrote to our Mentri Besar and the FAM on July 2, highlighting our predicaments but there has been no reply from them.“There are very serious repercussions if we fail to keep the date. We will not only be suspended and fined but Malaysian teams also face expulsion from the AFC Cup competition next year.”Darby added that the AFC had meted out such punishments on teams from Bahrain and Yemen for not being able to fulfil their obligations.Kedah and Negri Sembilan have secured places in the continental club competition next year as the Super League champions and runners-up respectively.The Englishman added that quarter-finalists get a US$20,000 grant from the AFC to help them cover the flight costs for the away match and also to take care of the accommodations of visiting teams but the money will only be handed out after the round.“I have been told by our president (Datuk Mahiyuddin Arshad) that the Perak FA are trying to sell a piece of land to help overcome the financial crisis,” said Darby.“But with such a sale take time to conduct. We now need a soft loan to help us see through our commitments in the AFC Cup and also to pay the players their salaries. Some of the players have taken loans from relatives and sold their cars just to make ends meet.”Kedah are the other Malaysian team in the AFC Cup quarter-finals and they will be up against Bahrain’s Muharah FC.In the Malaysia Cup competition, Perak are through to the quarter-finals. For away matches, Darby said that the team travelled by road and returned to Ipoh after the match.